A Better Start for the British Pound?

Here we go with another look at whether the pound is still on the ropes in the currency world. Will we end up with more bad news to report here, or will things take a turn for the better?

An overview of the currency markets for October 24th – October 28th 2016

The week began with the British pound worth 1.2187 against the US dollar. This increased to 1.2235 on Monday, which made for an encouraging start to the week. Even two days of falls didn’t get rid of that initial rise, instead stalling it on 1.2211 on Wednesday. The pound did very well the next day though, rising once more to 1.2255. However, if the week so far had been reasonably good, it was a disappointment on the final day. This saw it drop back to 1.2148 – a lower point than it had started on back on Monday morning.

So, with that sobering news to dwell on, let’s see whether we had a similar picture against the euro. We began trading on 1.1195 here, before rising to 1.1236 just two days later. A blip on Wednesday pushed the pound back to 1.1177 before another improvement (this time to 1.1216) came the next day. Finally, we ended up with another drop on Friday, and once again it was significant, taking the pound back to 1.1122.

The same picture was seen against the Hong Kong dollar as well. We began on 9.4555 before jumping up to close out day one on 9.4903. Two days later, we had dropped back to 9.4709, leaving us to wonder what would happen next. We had a very good result the following day, as we pushed ahead to close Thursday on 9.5045. This was the best result of the week thus far… but we knew what had happened in those other two cases. Would we struggle here as well? Indeed we would, but we ended up dropping further than we thought, falling to 9.4196 in the end.

Would the picture be equally as bad in New Zealand? With an opening rate of 1.7006, we improved to 1.7092 on Monday before experiencing that same drop in fortunes. By Wednesday evening we had slipped back to 1.7041. Still, with two days to go, could we do better? Thursday was more encouraging as we rose to 1.7156, but again, the final day of the week let us down. The British pound slid disappointingly to 1.7013, although here at least it was marginally better off than it had been at the start of the week.

Finally, it’s time to see if the pound could do as well against the Australian dollar. We opened on 1.5974 here before rising to 1.6044 on Monday. We were prepared to find poor results over the next couple of days, given the results we had seen elsewhere. We were right too, as Wednesday’s rate showed the pound had slipped to 1.5894. We had a significant jump in the right direction come Thursday though, as just 24 hours later we were sitting on 1.6082. This turned out to be just enough to stall any losses for the week, as we finished slightly down on that good rate on 1.6043.

Notable events in the world of currency

Better news from Canada at least

The pound did manage to improve its standing against the Canadian dollar, going from 1.6122 to 1.6264 across the week.

Not such good news against the Swiss franc

Here the pound did poorly by comparison, falling from 1.2119 to 1.2073 across the week.

Even the Icelandic krona improved at the pound’s expense

Here too the pound didn’t finish well. It started the week on 139.925 before dropping to 138.147.

There were disappointments all round this week then, as the pound did well for much of the week in most instances, only to ruin it at the last minute. In truth, we simply don’t know where the pound will go next, or how much further it could potentially fall.